Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

The Professor and the Madman, back cover:

"The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane."

I read everything from Simon Winchester.

yes, i saw that, it is on the fictionwise site (or books on board ? somewhere...) as part of the synopsis. i was just wondering about the difference with "The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary", since they seem to be about the same thing, at least in part... but anyway these books look quite good, so i will start with the professor and the madman and see if the other one will come out in LIT format soon (and hopefully a bit less expensive as well). recommendations for similar authors are welcome, although perhaps we should really start our own thread for this...

Carandol, if you find that your public library doesn't have all the electronic resources that you need, then it could be worth asking your university librarians how much they charge for ex-student access.

I've just been looking that up, funnily enough. It's apparently £30 a year, which seems pretty good, especially since that would give me access to things like Early English Books Online and all the back issues of the Times back to day one. As a citizen of Lancaster, I can use the books in the library, but not take them out, for free.

I like Matt Stone and Trey Parker's line of thinking. Here's part of an interview they did with Reason Magazine at the end of '06.

Quote:

Stone: We’re always in favor of people downloading. Always.

Reason: Why?

Stone: It’s how a lot of people see the show. And it’s never hurt us. We’ve done nothing but been successful with the show. How could you ever get mad about somebody who wants to see your stuff?

Parker: We worked really hard making that show, and the reason you do it is because you want people to see it.

I wish more artists thought this way. I think it's the only proper way to look at the internet right now. If you don't embrace the open sharing of information, you're just going to be frustrated and flounder in an evolving market. In the latest South Park episode, Trey Parker had Kyle sum up the current state of business on the internet fairly well.

Quote:

"You know, I learned something today. We thought we could make money on the internet. But while the internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn't matured as a distribution mechanism to the extent that one should trade real and immediate opportunities for income for the promise of future online revenue. It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forego their fair value in more traditional media."

I certainly don't think publishers and authors will have much to worry about for a while. And even as online distribution of books grows, paper books will still be popular.

Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

I like Matt Stone and Trey Parker's line of thinking. Here's part of an interview they did with Reason Magazine at the end of '06.

I wish more artists thought this way. I think it's the only proper way to look at the internet right now. If you don't embrace the open sharing of information, you're just going to be frustrated and flounder in an evolving market. In the latest South Park episode, Trey Parker had Kyle sum up the current state of business on the internet fairly well.

I certainly don't think publishers and authors will have much to worry about for a while. And even as online distribution of books grows, paper books will still be popular.

i agree, i wish more artists thought that way too. hopefully with time the mindset will evolve towards that.

Hi, I've written a number of books (novels, short stories, non-fiction, and collections of poems) that are free at www.memoware.com and .99 each at the Kindle store. Eleanor (Eleanor Lincoln Morse) and I started our own press to produce books which we sometimes sell and sometimes give away. It is my view that artists are responsible for delivering their work. If publishers decide that they cannot profit from your work, then you need to complete the loop yourself. So far, my books have been downloaded over 65,000 times, all over the English speaking world. This has been much more satisfying than accumulating rejection slips. Those who can make a living doing what they love are lucky. More power to them. Thankfully, the internet gives many of us an alternative way to be read. John Moncure Wetterau.

Hi, I've written a number of books (novels, short stories, non-fiction, and collections of poems) that are free at www.memoware.com and .99 each at the Kindle store. Eleanor (Eleanor Lincoln Morse) and I started our own press to produce books which we sometimes sell and sometimes give away. It is my view that artists are responsible for delivering their work. If publishers decide that they cannot profit from your work, then you need to complete the loop yourself. So far, my books have been downloaded over 65,000 times, all over the English speaking world. This has been much more satisfying than accumulating rejection slips. Those who can make a living doing what they love are lucky. More power to them. Thankfully, the internet gives many of us an alternative way to be read. John Moncure Wetterau.

Software is not "mostly" free. There is software that you can "use" for free, but it is paid for by advertising $, do the developers are getting paid. Examples might be google, flicker, digg, gmail, yahoo mail, etc.

This is why you don't see alot of "line of business" (boring) software out there for free. I write LOB software, and get paid to do it with the sales/support revenue from that software.

BOb

There is plenty of software that is "free," and not paid for by advertising of any kind. The BSD's, for example- best operating systems that exist. BSD also serves as a base for Mac OSX. How about Apache? You could class all of these as "business" software. Apache, the "free" webserver, is used by many more websites than IIS. In fact, you might say Apache runs the web.

In the field of software, I don't think anyone can make the claim that sales price is related to quality. Take UNIX, for example. One cannot call BSD "UNIX," but it is. And the BSDs are better than any commercial UNIX that ever existed, even though the commercial UNIX source licenses were $65K and up. In fact, BSD contributed something like 95% of the actual code base for the old AT&T "commercial" SVR....

There is plenty of software that is "free," and not paid for by advertising of any kind.

I didn't say that there isn't "plenty" of software that is free. I said "most" software is NOT free.

It is also true that most free/open source is general and or developer driven. Also, may developers that work on BSD, Apache, Linux etc are paid!

Quote:

Originally Posted by wgrimm

The BSD's, for example- best operating systems that exist. BSD also serves as a base for Mac OSX.

Case in point, Apple developers are PAID to work on BSD even though the software is available for free. Novell developers are paid to work on Linux. I believe JBoss has many devs on staff who's code goes into the Apache code base.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wgrimm

How about Apache? You could class all of these as "business" software. Apache, the "free" webserver, is used by many more websites than IIS. In fact, you might say Apache runs the web.

Also, no Apache and BSD are NOT Line-of-business software... they are OS/Platform apps. Yes, they are used in business. When I said "line-of-busines" I mean, Payroll, Accounting, HR, CRM, Warehousing, Dispatching, Logistics, Fixed Assests, Bank Software, Insurance software, Mortgage Company software, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wgrimm

In the field of software, I don't think anyone can make the claim that sales price is related to quality.